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REPUBLICANISM 



FRANCE 



"VJOOTyCTB IDE I2.XJFBE.T. 



Le peuple sonverain de lui-meme, et chaciin 

Son propre roi ; c'est la le droit 

, . . . La foule un jour peut couvrir le principe ; 

Mais le flot redescend, I'ecume se dissipe, 

La vague en s'en allant laisse le droit 'a nu. 

(L'Annee Terrible.) 



NEW YORK: 
H. DE Makkil, 42 Great Jones Stkeet. 

ERIE, PA.: 

CAUGHEY, McCREARY, & MOORHEAD. 
1874. 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, 

By DE RUPERT, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



8y Transfer 

D. C. Public Library 

JAN 3 1938 



V/ITHDEAV/N. 

18357 



MAR 2 1 :. 



TO 



. f eon #arabetta, 



Wn08E PATKTOTIO, THOTTmi TTNSTrOOESSFUL, EFFORTS 

TO BEAT BACK 

THE VICTORIOrS ARMIES OF GERMANY 

WILL BE FOREVER REMEMBERED BY HIS COUNTRYMEN. 



IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEniCATET) 



BY THE AUTHOR. 



^HIwS imperfect Essay is intended as an answer 
i to such questions as " What do you think of 
the Republic in France f '• Do you think France 
wants a republic ^ " etc., etc., which have often 
been asked me by prominent citizens of this gen- 
erous land, and more particularly of the hospita- 
ble and beautiful city wherein T am now writing. 

T)e R. 
Erie, Pa., Feb., 1874 



REPUBLICANISM IN FRANCE. 



I. 

,NE evening in the year of our Lord 1869, 
a friend, a gentleman of the modern polit- 
ical school, whom we will call Monsieur D., 
and vour humble servant, found themselves in 
the old-fashioned, aristocratic salon of Monsieur 
C, a thorough-bred old royalist well known 
in the metropolis of France. None but the 
most devout worshipers of the old regime 
congregated in the famous salon: a fact which, 
by the way, would naturally lead one to in- 
quire how two republican canailles like Mon- 
sieur D. and the writer of this essay happened 
to be in the midst of these living antiquaries. 
We have reason to believe that they wished to 
enroll a few recruits into their thinning ranks. 



8 Republicanism in France. 

It was nearly midnight. The habitues, 
divided into various groups, were conversing 
with animation. Some were talking love, 
others science, politics, literature, art, and phi- 
losophy ; while a few old wits indulged in 
calembours, repartees, and nonsense. Mon- 
sieur C. and my friend D. stood apparently 
admiring a painting illustrating an episode of 
Tasso's epic : Clorinda, mortally wounded by 
her lover Tancred, dies in the arms of the 
gallant but unfortunate knight. Presently, 
Monsieur C, tapping my friend on the shoul- 
der and pointing to the toile, said, in a voice 
betraying much enthusiasm and emotion : 
^^ Ah ! Monsieur, those were glorious days, 
when France and her allies from various 
parts of Europe poured their mingled legions 
of gallant knights upon the plains of old 
Asia, on to Jerusalem, to deliver the holy 
sepulchre from the polluting gaze of the 



Republicanism in France. 9 

barbarians, shouting as they went, * God wills 
it,' while the thousand banners of the cross 
floated in the air. Look around, upon the 
pages of history, and tell me where you can 
find in this century, which scientists, theorists, 
and political adventurers call the age of 
Progress — it chills my very blood to think of 
it — where, I say, can you find such noble, 
brave, devout, and disinterested men as 
Godfrey of Boulogne, the Count of Blois, 
Saint Louis, Richard the lion-hearted, and 
Robert, to say nothing of the many dis- 
tinguished ladies, at the head of whom stood, 
great in faith, the noble Countess of Blois? 
From the eleventh down to the latter part of 
the thirteenth century, three hundred thou- 
sand Frenchmen died fighting in that far-off, 
mysterious land of the East; and for what 
purpose? Was it to acquire fame ? Nothing 

could have been further from their minds. 

2 



10 Republicanism in France. 

The Oriental riches tempted their cupidity, 
some historians are determined to prove, 
despite the well-known fact that the majority 
of the nobles sold or mortgaged their estates 
to defray their expenses ; and those who 
returned found themselves penniless, homeless, 
leaving their descendants no other prospect 
than that of serving as valet in the ante- 
chamber of the Capetian kings. No, 
monsieur, neither thirst for fame nor any 
other worldly thing prompted these men to 
take the cross ; it was in the defence of their 
faith that they died and squandered their 
wealth ; for, you see, France believed in God 
then — " '' And she does still,'' interrupted 
D., who, although a republican, happened to 
be a good Christian. However, to atone for 
this rather rude interruption, he continued^ 
lavishing praise on the romantic movement of 
the Crusades. *^No one/' he said, "has ever 



Republicanism in Fraj^ce. 11 

read with more interest than myself the 
history of the Crusades. It is with the 
deepest feeling of respect that I think of the 
two millions of intrepid Christians whose 
bones whiten the way to Jerusalem, pointing 
to future generations the road to the sacred 
spot whence Jesus dictated that great moral 
code which has been for more than eighteen 
hundred years the corner-stone of our civili- 
zation, and which will continue to be so until, 
following the course of natural laws, our 
planet ceases to exist as a compact body. 
The Crusades opened the era of scholarship 
and refinement in Northern Europe. The 
historian, the philosopher, brooding over the 
ruins of the past, gave to the world most 
valuable information ; and our muse, shaking 
off her garment of common-places, donned 
the Oriental robe, which won many an 
admirer. The Crusades have done still more 



12 Republicanism in France. 

than this. They sowed the seeds of liberty 
in our land — " 

" What !" interrupted the old royalist, " Do 
I understand you to say ? do you mean to say 
that the Crusaders were republicans?" 

^' No, indeed. Sir/' respectfully replied my 
friend. " I simply mentioned the fact that 
among the great moral results brought about 
by the Crusades, liberty stood prominent as 
the most beneficial legacy ever bequeathed to 
humanity." 

"Stop!" angrily cried the old fossil, re- 
straining himself with difficulty. "You 
insult me. Sir," and here the conversation 
abruptly ended. 



11. 

HE foregoing conversation illustrates, on 
the one hand, the narrow-mindedness and 
excessive intolerance of those warm adherents 
of the doctrine of divine right; loyal men 
who cannot comprehend why God should 
postpone the triumphal entry into Paris of 
the last descendant of the Capetian dynasty, 
the rightful heir to the throne of France by 
the grace of God ; while on the other hand it 
shows the investigating Frenchman defen- 
ding and propagating thereby the princi- 
ple of democracy, from the public rostrum, at 
the theatre, in the street, the church, the 
peasant^s home, and even under the historical 
roof of the most powerful and fanatical of 
conservatives. 

Having now brought face to face the disci- 
ples of the old and modern political school, 
13 



14 Republicanism in France. 

we will proceed to argue the following propo- 
sition, viz : How and when has democracy 
crept in among the down -trodden subjects of 
the French kings ? 

France, until the latter part of the eleventh 
century, could hardly be considered a civilized 
land. During the five hundred years em- 
bracing the Merovingian and Carlovingian 
dynasties, the Franks had certainly gained a 
little knowledge of the Roman laws and 
yielded somewhat to the civilizing influence of 
the people whom they had conquered ; but 
their wild and quarrelsome instinct stood in 
bold relief in all their dealings. They were 
unfit for either command or obedience, even to 
the church, whose dignitaries they oftentimes 
insulted, and rightfully, perhaps, since the 
moral degradation of the priests was not in 
the least degree exceeded by that of the 
laymen. A race in such an abject state of 



Republicanism in France. 15 

mind and morals needs the iron hand of a 
despot. No one would deny this. Is igno- 
rance supreme in the land — monarchical rule 
becomes a necessity. Has a nation caught as 
yet but a feeble glimpse of civilization — 
despotism is needed. 

Unfortunately, however, for all systems of 
despotism, man is susceptible of understand- 
ing, of progress, and he has understood, 
and he has progressed. The plebeian foresaw 
that the recognition of his rights could be 
brought about only through knowledge and 
accumulation of property ; and he went to 
work and he did learn and he did accumulate 
property ; and behold the impoverished lord 
borrowing money from an old runaway 
servant of his who has two ships on the 
Mediterranean Sea and an elegant mansion in 
Marseilles. 

We are in the twelfth century. The first 



16 Republicanism in France. 

Crusade is over. There is everywhere craving 
for knowledge. The chieftains of the land 
are impoverished, and commerce, which until 
then had been almost unknown in Northern 
Europe, fills the ports with ships laden with 
the various products of the East. Everything 
indicates that civilization is rapidly entering 
on its upward journey. Here democracy 
takes root. Should the truth of this assertion 
be questioned, we would furthermore assert 
that wherever commerce gives anv signs of 
progress, there also a rapid spread of the prin- 
ciples inherent to the doctrine of self-govern- 
ment is sure to take place. Indeed, commerce 
and industry, by bringing into daily contact 
different nationalities and personalities of all 
grades, must eventually be productive of the 
following results: 

1st. The disappearance of national preju- 
dices. 



Repubj.icanisxM in France. 17 

2d. The shortening of the social distance 
which has hitherto divided the high and the 
low. 

3d. The rapid growth of knowledge. 

4th. Trust, confidence, and friendship ; and, 
finally, the mingling of all classes in the 
great struggle for intellectual and pecuniary- 
supremacy, sweeping in their onward march 

the decayed social fabric of old. 
3 



III. 
^''HE dawn of the commercial and intellectual 
1 era in the land of the Franks sounded the 
knell of absolute power, by placing in the 
hands of the serfs the weapons with which 
seven centuries afterward their chains were to 
be broken. 

New powers were now entering the arena. 
The combined influence of the French King 
and the Church, under the leadership of 
the mighty Pope, Gregory the VII., had 
reduced the oligarchical rule of the feudal 
lords to nought. The peasants looked to the 
priests as their saviors, and implored their 
protection against the usurpation of their 
royal ruler, who, on the other hand, protected 
them against the encroachments of those very 

priests; while a few speculative minds, led 

18 



Republic ANisi\r in France. 19 

by j the famous Abelard, were teaching the 
young enthusiasts in Paris and the provincial 
towns that to think without the consent of the 
Pope, or of any other man, was perfectly 
legal. This doctrine took well, and, despite 
the imprisonment of its chief author, continued 
to gain strength. The abuses of the church 
and religious innovations began to be talked 
of. The years rolled on. Margaret of 
Navarre, Lefevre, Farel, and Calvin inaugur- 
ate the reformation which, although not 
recognized by the state, and hunted down by 
the Roman Inquisition, wins many a firm 
adherent, pleased with the simplicity of its 
doctrine, which seems to be more in accordance 
with the Scriptural faith than that of the 
Romish Church. 

The reformed church did not only renew 
the primitive faith, pure and simple, which is 



20 Re^tjblicanism in France. 

much ; it was also a decided intellectual 
improvement on its crumbling but yet power- 
ful rival of Rome : and to the philosophical 
observer, here lies its merit and the secret of 
its success. It diffused education among the 
masses, impelled scientific researches and phi- 
losophical speculations, and helped to bring 
about the overthrow of monarchism in America 
and France : so overwhelmingly true is it that 
knowledge and true Christianity cannot coin- 
cide with absolutism. One of these powers 
must then be annihilated. Which one shall 
be cast to oblivion ? The future answers : 
Absolutism, and the whole world shouts : 
Amen ! 

From the dawn of the twelfth century to 
the great social upheaval in 1789, republican- 
ism had steadily been working in France, 
doing away, aided by its kings, with the old 



Republicanism in France. 21 

theocratic and feudal systems, which dated 
from Gregory the YII and Innocent the III., 
" a solution which submitted Europe to the 
pontifical power of Rome, and produced the 
epic movement of the Crusades/'* But when 
theocracy and feudalism were conquered, 
royalty was no longer wanted. On the other 
hand, finding that it was becoming useless to 
the welfare of France, royalty joined that 
which remained of the disciples of theocracy 
and feudalism, in order to bring back the 
people to their former submission; but the 
latter, though often crippled by the combined 
forces of their adversaries, held firm to their 
position. Such is the struggle which has 
been going on for the last eighty-four years in 
France, leaving, as it were, the political 
problem of that country comparatively un- 
solved, despite the Republic of MacMahon 
*A contemporary. 



22 Republicanism in France. 

and the ( so - called ) National Assembly. 

It is doubtless these facts which have given 
rise to two distinct theories. The first, in- 
augurated by the adherents of the old regime, 
is : " That a government by the people is the 
fancy of demagogues ; that it has been tried 
and proved a most miserable failure ; that it 
is productive of nothing but mediocrities in 
the realms of politics, philosophy, science, art, 
and literature ; and that petty jealousies, 
selfishness, irreligion, and immorality, the 
natural offshoots of decayed intellect, cut 
short the existence of that political dream, 
called republicanism/' 

The second, which seems to be popular with 
Americans at large, is : " That the fickleness, 
the inconsistency, the peculiar code of morality 
which can put the mildest puritan to flight. 



Republicanisjm in France. 23 

and the religious skepticism of the French, 
make doubtful the stability of self-government 
with them." 

Let us now look into these doctrines, for it 
would be well to see, after a conscientious 
review of historical facts, whether they should 
be admitted as incontestable truths, or indig- 
nantly discarded as puerile combinations of 
parties, either interested or misinformed. 



IV. 

fISTORY shows that the dawn of democ- 
racy among Pagan and Christian nations, 
has, in all cases which we know of, paved the 
way to most progressive eras. The Republics 
of Athens, Carthage, Venice, etc. , oligarchical 
though they were, reached the pinnacle of 
military and intellectual greatness. Let us 
prove this assertion. 

The great captains, Themistocles and Mil- 
tiades ; the poets, all^schylus, Sophocles, 
Euripides, Aristophanes; the historians, 
Herodotus and Xenophon ; the philosophers, 
Zeno, Socrates, Democrates, Plato, and Aris- 
totle ; the statesman, Pericles ; the scientist, 
Hippocrates, and many other names well 
known to the student of history, were citizens 

of the Republic of Athens. 
24 



Republicanism in P^rance. 25 

The Roman Republic has been as prolific of 
great names as its Grecian rival. Regains, 
Fabius, Marcellus, and the two Scipios com- 
manded its armies ; Sallustius, Hirtius Pansa, 
Nepos, and Livius wrote its history ; Flavins, 
Terentius, Catullus, Virgilius, and Horatius 
sung its praise ; Cicero and Cato arraigned its 
citizens and Virtruvius built its palaces. 

The great Carthaginian warriors, Hannibal, 
Hasdrubal, and Hamilcar, made their republic 
forever famous. 

Venice gave to the world some of its greatest 
artists and savans. 

Cromwell, Milton, Newton, Bunyan, Dry- 
den, and Locke flourished during the nominal 
Republic of Great Britain. 

In France, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rous- 
seau, Diderot, Lafayette, Napoleon, Mirabeau, 

Ney, Dan ton, Chateaubriand, Michelet, Thiers, 
4 



26 Republicanism in France. 

Lamartine, LaPlace, Legendre, Cuvier, 
Renan, Littre, Comte, Victor Hugo, Louis 
Blanc, Gambetta, and Rochefort are all more 
or less identified with the Republic, and they 
are indeed the greatest names of France. 

Let us now come to the United States. 
The grand Republic. The eldest daughter of 
our civilization. " The home of the free." 
Oh, precious land of liberty ! may God 
continue to bless thee ! is the earnest prayer 
of a refugee. 

A hundred years ago, this broad land was 
but an humble colony of three or four million 
inhabitants, scattered through New England, 
Eastern New York and Pennsylvania, and 
some of the Southern States, and paying their 
annual tribute to the British Crown; and 
behold now a nation of some forty millions of 
free citizens, whose thrift, energy, patriotism. 



REprtJUCANisM IN France. 27 

Christian principle, wealth, and general intel- 
lectual attainment have raised her to the 
foremost rank amongst nations. To be 
scarce a century old, and to lead Europe in 
the path of progress appears fabulous, but it 
is nevertheless strictly true, if it be admitted 
that the working, in its full completeness, of 
the doctrine preached nineteen centuries ago, 
by the Divinity itself, embodying liberty, 
fraternity, and equality, or, in other words, 
the leveling of castes, the freedom, happiness, 
and enlightenment of all, constitutes progress. 
It has often been surmised by European 
and even American writers of the conservative 
school, that this Republic, owing its rapid 
growth strictly to a feverish thirst for gain, 
will eventually end in an oligarchy of wealth.* 

*"It is easy to see where North America stands at 
present, and whither it is tending. Its rapid progress, 
due to the most degrading workf<, has fascinated Europe ; 



28 Republicanism in France. 

There may be some truth in this assertion ; 
but if three years of constant study of the 
politico-social organization of this land entitle 
your humble servant to an opinion on this 
seemingly grave question, he would beg to 
differ with the learned writers above alluded to. 

In the first place, the general and rapid 

prosperity of IN'orth America is not exclusively, 

though in a great measure, due to speculations 

in stocks, etc. Other powers have been at 

work to build this gigantic machinery. George 

Washington was no railroad king. Jackson, 

Thomas Jefferson, Calhoun were no brokers. 

Adams, the two Websters, Lincoln, Grant, 

but the results of this progress, exclusively material, 
already appear. Barbarism, profligacy, general bank- 
ruptcy, systematic destruction of the native races, idiotic 
slavery of the conquerors, bound to the most trying and 
repulsive of lives under the yoke of their own machinery. 
" America might founder in the ocean once for all, 
and the human race would suffer no loss thereby. Not 



Republicanism in France. 29 

Sherman, Thomas Paine, Poe, Irving, Cooper, 
Holmes, Longfellow, Bryant, Whittier, Mrs. 
Stowe, Franklin, Prof. Morse, Agassiz, 
Greeley, Sumner, Wendell Phillips, Emerson, 
Henry Ward Beecher, George William 
Curtis, and Hiram Powers are not known to 
the world as princes of finance ; and the 
thousands of churches, school-houses, and 
newspaper offices scattered throughout the 
land, were never used in the manufacture of 
broadcloth and pig-iron. 

There are indeed here, as in many other 
countries, parvenus who, forgetting their 
own origin, sneer at the ^^ government of 

a saint, not an artist, not a thinker has it produced, unless 
one may term thought the aptitude for twisting iron for 
the construction of freight trains. The priests who 
wear out their lives there cannot create a civilization. Thus 
far there is no civilization in America, and as far as appear- 
ances go, there never will he." — Louis Veuillot, '^ Paris 
U'nive7\s.'^ 



so Republicanism in France. 

the plebs ;" but their iDfluence does Dot go 
beyond a certain class of sneaks whose 
ridiculous family pretensions contrast singu- 
larly with their crude conception of social 
ethics and strange (not to say low) tastes. It 
would be absurd to think that such inoffensive 
idiots could ever endanger the liberties of this 
great people. 

Let us come to the second doctrine, now 
that we have put in its full relief the 
following truths, viz : That republicanism is 
no fancy, but a most practicable theory; 
that it is conducive to the highest intellectual 
attainment and general prosperity of a state ; 
and, that there being no vices or telling defects 
inherent to its principles, the frequent occur- 
rences of its overthrow have always been the 
result of human depravities. 



V. 

^JRANCE has been, from time immemorial, 

^ the subject of much study, and yet she 

remains an enigma to the world. Unlike 

other countries, there are no rules whereby 

she can be judged ; for she violates all rules. 

To day, as obedient to the laws as a Spartan 

Helot; to-morrow, behold her throwing the 

head of her king into the bloody basket of 

the guillotine. Ninety-four finds her sinking 

into the lowest depths of anarchy ; and ten 

years later she holds firm in her grasp the 

destinies of the civilized world. Eighteen 

hundred sixty-nine comes. You remember 

that year, do you not, reader ? If you do 

not, I do ; and there comes a chill creeping all 

over my body every time I think of it. I 

feel as though I was drawn by the feet into 

the icy regions of Dante's Hell ; but on the 
31 



32 Republicanism in France, 

other hand, with the thought of eighteen 
hundred seventy-three comes a pleasant re- 
action. The contrast is immense. Since the 
advent of the " Maid of Orleans/' France 
had never fallen so low as during the last war. 
Her armies were lying in German prisons. 
Her cannons, Chassepots, and sixty flags 
captured. The enemy holding twenty-nine of 
her strongholds and a third of her territory. 
Eighty thousand brave fellows killed. Two 
rich provinces lost. Nine hundred million 
dollars gone to the winds, and nine hundred 
millions more to be paid as indemnity to the 
Germans. Society crumbling to pieces, and 
anarchy, famine and despair staricg every one 
in the face. That is the France of three years 
ago; and now she is free, and at peace with 
the world and herself. Her indemnity is paid ; 
her finances in a tolerably good condition, and 
her commerce and industry flourishing. 



Republicanis:\[ in France. 83 

Society has regained its equilibrium, and the 
world is compelled to admit that the mighty- 
deeds which she has performed during the 
last three years, throw in the shade the most 
glorious epochs of her former history. 

The twelve revolutions through which 
France has passed during the last eighty -four 
years would be enough to lead the superficial 
foreign observer to infer that the French are, 
and ever will be, incapable of self-government. 
This is, however, a mistake. That which 
seems to be inconsistency and fickleness with 
them is, in reality, merely their marvelous 
power of adaptability to the numerous political 
changes naturally involved in a long contest 
for supremacy; betwixt knowledge and indus- 
try, representing the republic on one hand, 
and monarchism, with its decayed principles, 
prejudices, and religious fanaticism, on the 

other. To be incapable of enjoying a liberty 
6 



34 Republicanism in France. 

which it has taken eight hundred years of 
constant labor and much bloodshed to win! 
Ah ! think of it. Is not this the height of 
absurdity ? 



VI. 

^JOREIGN geographers tell the children, 
with an assurance characteristic of text- 
books, that the French are a social, courageous, 
but immoral race; or something to that effect. 
A thorough diagnosis of the French character 
will not be needed here to refute the latter part 
of this geographical saying, since it is ac- 
knowledged by historians and moralists of all 
times and nationalities, and by all the people 
who possess any knowledge of human nature, 
that wherever immorality dwells courage is 
there unknown. This assertion admits of 
exceptions, of course, but they are few. 
Moral depravity is not at home on the field of 
honor. If it be admitted that one of the 
Frenchman's most prominent characteristics is 
courage, it must also be granted that this 
much-abused individual does not spend his 

life in the pursuit of lustful pleasures. 
35 



36 Republicanism in France. 

"Paris is indeed the haunt of vice/^ wrote 
lately the correspondent of a New York 
paper. Perhaps it is; but what of that? 
Paris is not all France ; and even were it so, 
has it not been admitted by foreigners (and we 
have ourselves purposely tested the truth of 
this assertion) that more than one-half of the 
regular patrons of fashionable places of ill -re- 
pute are Germans, Russians, Italians, English, 
and (shall we say) Americans ? We have no 
inclination to deny that there are in France 
profligates, men and women of doubtful 
virtue; but we do most emphatically assert 
that they do not represent more than one- 
sixtieth of the population. An English contem- 
porary, whose name we have forgotten, asserts 
that there are more illegitimate births in most 
European States, including even Scotland 
(in proportion to the population), the land of 
propriety of speech and of action, than in 



REPUBLICANlSai TN FrANCE. 37 

France. Furthermore, the general good health 
and industrious habits of the French, and 
their excessive fondness for home, show, if 
anything, that the disgusting epithet, immoral, 
when applied to the nation at large, is a gross 
calumny. 

We come now to the so-called irreligious sen- 
timent of the French. We are aware that this 
unexpected "' so-called '^ will give rise to many 
a skeptical smile. It is well. Smile, if you 
wish ; but read on, we beg of you. France has 
a population of thirty-six millions. Twenty- 
five millions are tillers of the soil ; and, it is 
well known, the most fanatical of believers. 
The number of priests. Christian brothers and 
nuns reaches two hundred thousand. There are 
eighteen hundred thousand Protestants, whose 
faith in the Lord is unquestionable. The re- 
maining nine millions include at least five 
million women and children, and the French wo- 



38 Republicanism in France. 

man and child are most devout Catholics. These 
statistics show that there are in France thirty- 
two million believers, leaving only four million 
sworn enemies to the established church ; and 
yet the French are called anti-religious. 

Now, in justice to these four million indi- 
viduals, let us investigate what sort of a 
church it is they are so anxious to annihilate. 
^ It is a church which declared heresy a 
crime worthy of death, and that the grace of 
God would follow the murderers of heretics.* 

It is a church which claims the power " to 
make just that which is unjust, and unjust 
that which is just ;"t and boldly informs the 
world that '^ the tribunal of the Pope and the 
tribunal of God is one and the same thing /^ 
that " when the Pope thinks, it is God who 

♦Innocent III. letter 11th. Urban, II. in a letter to 
the Bishop of Lucqnes. Decretals (Part ii, ch. 15). 

tCommentators on the Canon Law quoted by Des- 
saulles. 



Republicanism in France. 39 

thinks through him ;'^* that " the Pope is a 
God upon earth ;"t that ^' he is less than God 
but more than man f^l that " he has about 
the same power as God ;^'§ that " he will 
judge the saints and the angels in Heaven ;"|| 
that ^^ he is our Lord God ;"1[ that '' he is the 
sovereign judge of civil laws ;'^** and that 
"the most depraved monk is better than the 
best laity/'tt 

"'^ It is a church which sends to hell all non- 
believers in its infallibility, and condemns 
liberty of conscience, despite the famous 
precept of Paul : " Examine all well and take 

*CivUta CattoUca (the acknowledged organ of the Pope) 
of 1870. 
fBishop Alvare Pelage, 
tinnocent III. 

§Julianus (one of the best authorities among canonists.) 
Illnnocent IV. Letter to the Emperor Frederic. 
IZenzolius. 

**Clvllta CattoUca, March 18th, 1871. 
ttSt. Pierre Damien and PiUchdorff. 



40 Republicanism in France. 

that which is good ;'^ and of James, who said : 
" The law of Christ is the law of liberty/' 

It is a church which seems to have so far 
forgotten, or rather so to antagonize certain 
Scriptural teachings, that the unprejudiced 
observer is compelled to question its Chris- 
tianity. 

It is a church which refuses a last prayer 
for the unknown dead, fearing it might be the 
mortal remains of a heretic ! 

It is the church which, through the celibacy 
of its priests and nuns, has been the chief 
cause of the depopulation not only of 
France,* but also of Austria, Spain, Italy, and 

*In the year 1500 there were in France 40,000 religious 
men and women, in a marriageable state ; a number that 
would have given, supposing three children for each 
generation : In 1530 120,000 children, and later 60,000 
couple. In 1560 these 60,000 couple could have given 
180,000 children, or 90,000 couple, and so on for every 
thirty years, giving for 1874 over 11,000,000 inhabit- 
ants. These statistics need no comments. 



Republicanism in France. 41 

South America, threatening thereby the final 
extinction of the Catholic races. 

It is the church which condemns all consti- 
tutions based upon the principle of the 
sovereignty of the people ; calls for an 
immediate destruction of educational estab- 
lishments which it cannot control ; curses the 
universities, and upholds the doctrine of 
intellectual stagnation. 
'r It is the church which, through its arro- 
gance, hypocrisy, and everlasting crusades 
against intellectual progress, religious and 
political liberties, has succeeded most admirably 
in creating, amongst the thinking classes of 
Catholics f a feeling of indifference or disgust 
towards Christianity itself.* 

*Roman Catholic polemics maintain that Protestant- 
ism is responsible for the skepticism and unbelief that 
prevail so extensively among the Christian nations. 
They assert that there has arisen in the wake of Protes- 
tantism a spirit of irreligion, which threatens to subvert 
6 



42 Republicanism in France. 

The most powerful enemy which the French 
Republic has to contend with, is again the 
same church ; and before many years have 
elapsed, my American friends, you will also 

the social fabric. The causes of this evil, however, do 
not lie at the door of Protestantism. The free inquiry 
that has developed in Europe, in connection with the 
revival of learning, could not be smothered by mere 
authority. The earnest rehgious feeling, which the 
Reformation at the outset brought with it, counteracted 
the tendencies to unbelief, for a time, at least ; and it 
was only when Protestantism departed from its own 
principles, and acted upon the maxims of its adversary, 
at the same time losing the warmth of religious life so 
conspicuous at the beginning, that infidelity had a free 
course. The ideas which Plutarch long ago embodied 
in his treatise on Superstition and Unbelief are well 
founded. They are two extremes, each of which begets 
the other. Not only may the artificial faith which leads 
to superstitious practices and drives its devotees to 
fanaticism at length spend its force, and move the same 
devotees to cast off the restraints of religion, but the 
spectacle of superstition, also, repels more sober and 
courageous minds from all faith and worship. Such has 
been the notorious effect of the superstitious ceremonies 
and austerities of the Roman Catholic system, both in 
the age of the Renaissance and in our own day. 
Religion comes to be identified, in the opinions of men, 



Rkpublicanism in France. 43 

feel the might of this same power, should you 
neglect to apply the preventive in time. 

Now, ought the antagonists of that self-styled 

with tenets and observances which are repugnant to 
reason and common sense ; and hence truth and error 
are thrown overboard at once. Disgusted with the 
follies which pass under the name of religion, and 
attract the reverence of the ignorant, men make ship- 
wreck of faith altogether. The same baleful influence 
ensues upon the attempt to stretch the principle of 
authority beyond the due limit. It is like the effect of 
excessive restraint in the family. A revolt is the conse- 
quence wherever there is a failure to repress mental 
activity and to enslave the will. The subjugation of 
the intelligence which the Roman Catholic system car- 
ries with it as an essential ingredient, compels a mutiny 
which is very likely not to stop with the rejection of 
usurped authority. . . Looking at the matter 
historically, w^e find that, in the age prior to the 
Reformation, unbelief was most rife in Italy, the ancient 
centre of the Roman Catholic hierarchy. In recent 
times skepticism is nowhere more prevalent than among 
the higher, cultivated classes in Roman Catholic coun- 
tries, where the doctrines of that religion have been 
perpetually taught, and where its ritual has been cele- 
brated with most pomp.— Pro/. George P. Fisher, D.D., 
of Yale College : Extract from a Paper read before the 
Evangelical Alliance held in New York, October, 1873. 



44 Republicanism in France. 

infallible church to be branded to the world 
as "disciples of the Devil/^ "enemies of 
society," "crazy reds/^ etc., or as earnest, if 
not always successful, seekers after truth, and 
intelligent advocates of the liberty of con- 
science? We beg leave to demand of the 
enlightened Protestant clergy of this Christian 
land an answer to this question. 

The arguments set forth in support of the 
complex theories which we have been discuss- 
ing in the last three sections of this Essay, 
have, we hope, been sufficiently refuted to 
satisfy the reader of their utter worthlessness. 

Let us now throw a rapid glance over the 
actualpolitical field of France, and see what 
can be deduced therefrom. 



VII. 

HE French National Assembly is perhaps 
the most singular political phenomenon of 
modern history. It might well be compared 
to a ship left in the command of a crew in 
full mutiny. The violence of speech charac- 
teristic of the several parties which compose 
that body, and their cordial hatred of each 
other, would seem to attest the truth of this 
parallel. 

Here the Legitimists and Orleanists clamor 
for a king, foretelling an immediate return to 
the golden age which never existed, not even 
in the time of the canonized Louis, the wisest 
of all French monarchs. 

There the Bonapartists, with an impudence 
never surpassed by their deceased chief in his 

palmiest days, uphold the governmental 
45 



46 Republicanism in France. 

doctrine inaugurated by the great man of 
Austerlitz and buried with the man of Sedan. 

Opposite this group, surrounding the 
banner of absolutism, move, wide awake, and 
bound by a common idea, and perhaps as 
unscrupulous as their opponents — and as all 
politicians are — the clever representatives of 
modern civilization. Known as Republicans, 
Moderate Republicans, Red Republicans or 
Oommuneux (not petroleurs), the latter advocate, 
from their respective points of view, a form 
of government more likely to coincide with 
the spirit of liberalism characteristic of our 
epoch : in other words, a government by and 
for the people. 

Which is to be the happy victor ? Whither 
is this obstinate political tournament leading 
France ? 

Worthy representatives of the old noblesse 



Republicanism in France. 47 

who fought on many a battle-field for the 
honor and the glory of France, the Legiti- 
mists, were made conspicuous by the famous 
fusion. Their devotion to the cause of royalty 
and their faith in its ultimate success cannot 
be questioned. Yet, their most skillfully 
arranged plan failed. The Count de Cham- 
bord had the good sense to see in his visit to 
France that he was not wanted there. The 
indifference of the people, and the democratic 
atmosphere which he was compelled to breathe 
in the very face of his ancestor at the Pont 
Neuf, chilled him to the heart, and, like a 
far-seeing man that he proved to be, he 
preferred not to risk his head for a crown. 
This rather unexpected action on the part of 
the Bourbon Prince dealt an irreparable blow 
to the party which so faithfully upheld his 
candidature to the throne, and it looks very 
much now as thouo-h it was doomed to return 



48 Republicanism in France. 

to the quite domestic life from which it 
emerged at the downfall of the Imperial 
regime. 

Beloved by the high bourgeoisie, but antag- 
onized by all the parties and the country at 
large, the Orleanists, it seems to us, might as 
well give up all hope to crown one of their 
sires. The revolution of 1848 condemned 
Philippism to an everlasting slumber. 

Despite their well-phrased apologies, the 
Bonapartists will not be likely to induce the 
people to believe that either Thiers or Gambetta, 
and not their immaculate hero and '^ martyr," 
Napoleon, has covered France with woe, 
misery, and shame, and whitened her frontiers 
with the bones of thousands of her brave 
children. 

That Napoleon was forced into the war by 
his advisers — *whicli is perhaps true — does not 



REPUliLICANIS-AI IN FllANCE. 49 

alter tlie fact that he is responsible for the 
disasters which ensued. 

(^ui tk'iit le ijouctr/Kiil doit connaltre lecut'd^* 

is a truth which it would be ridicu- 
lous to question. In short, France has had 
enough of Csesarism. The imperial regime 
is already a thing of the past, and ere long the 
people will forget that it ever existed. 

Ever since the existence of the Versailles 
Assembly, and more particularly after the 
overthrow of M. Thiers, these three factions, 
bound by a mutual fear of their common 
enemy, the Republic, have been the absolute 
rulers of France. Being elected during the 
period of despondency subsequent to the fall 
of the Empire, these petty monarchs do not 
to-day represent the people of France, and 
should the radicals succeed in bringing about 

*LaHarpe — "Whoever is at the ]ielm must know 
where perils lie." 



50 Republicanism in France. 

the dissolution of the Assembly, they would 
be sent away rusticating, leaving their places 
to be filled by republicans ; but they are, 
nevertheless, the legal delegates of the 
nation, and as such they shrewdly invested 
themselves with a power which has so far 
dwarfed the efforts of the dissolutionists and 
made the country submissive to their will, and, 
should they continue to oppose a solid, unwa- 
vering front to their republican antagonists, it 
is probable that they will hold the sceptre until 
the expiration of President MacMahon's term 
of office. However, the entente, ^Yh'lch. has 
heretofore constituted the strength of these 
opponents of democracy, will doubtless be 
brought to an end ere the septennial power is 
over, through the impatience which the parties 
already manifest to make sure the success of 
their respective claimants to the throne, 
hastening thereby their overthrow and the final 



Republicanis:\i in France. 51 

triumph of the worthy representatives of the 
Left, the triumph of a Republic, not royal 
like that of MacMahon, or socialistic, like that 
dreamed of by the Internationalists ; but mod- 
erate and rational — a republic which will not 
debase and destroy, but instruct and build, up- 
rooting thereby the last vestige of absolutism. 
Changes (which the most far-reaching minds 
fail to discover on the political horizon) 
antagonistic to the working of democratic 
institutions might, however, occur during the 
next twenty-five years. Absolutism might 
again appear at the surface, but like a dark 
cloud in a clear sky, it would be swept away 
by the resistless breath of democracy ; for 
Frenchmen 

Forget not 

The price for Freedom paid, 
The blood, the treasure, sufferings, tears. 

On their country's altar laid ;* 

*A. H. Caiighey— Poe?/i5, page 63. 



52 Republicanism in France. 

they are born democrats; the republic is in 
their blood. M. Thiers well understood 
this when he said that '^ the Republic is the 
only government possible for France.'^ Cha- 
teaubriand, the great writer and veteran 
monarchist, went still further. He foretold 
almost half a century ago, not simply the final 
triumph of the republic, but also a complete 
reorganization of the social structure. '•'' 

The foUovnvff was written, in 1834- and 18S6, hy Cha- 
teaubriand : 

"Europe runs to democracy. France herself is 
nothing but a Republic trammeled by a King. The 
people have served their time as pages. Princes have 
enjoyed la garde-nohle long enough. To-day, nations 
arrived at their majority assume to have no more need 
of tutors. From David down kings have been called. 
To day, in their turn, nations ase called. The exceptions 
of the Greek, Carthaginian, and Roman Republics do 
not alter the general political fact that the normal state 
of society upon this globe has been monarchical. Now 
society abandons monarchy : at least such monarchy as 
it has known heretofore. 

'• Symptoms of this social transformation abound on 
every hand. Vain are all attempts to reconstitute a 



REPUBLICANlSAt IN l^^NCE. 5*^ 

Whether the latter of these prophecies is 

party whose principle shall be government by one. The 
elenientary principles of such a government can be 
found no more : men are as much changed as principles 
are. Even the facts, however contrary they may seem, 
tend no less to establish the same result, as in a machine, 
the wheels which turn in contrary directions produce a 
common motion. 

" Sovereigns submitting gradually to popular innova- 
tions, separating themselves without violence and with- 
out shock from their pedestal, transmit to their sons, 
in a period more or less extended, their hereditary 
sceptre reduced to proportions measured by law. But 
no one understands the event. Kings become obstinate 
in keeping that which they should not know how to 
retain ; instead of gracefully descending the inclined 
plane, they expose themselves to falling into the abyss ; 
instead of dying a beautiful death, full of honors and 
of days, monarchy runs the risk of being fla5^ed alive. 

''Nations the least prepared for liberal institutions, 
such as Spain and Portugal, are pushed on to constitu- 
tional movements. In these countries ideas are in 
advance of man. France and England, like two enor- 
mous battering-rams, are striking tremendous blows 
against the crumbling ramparts of ancient society. 

*'The boldest doctrines of liberty, equality, and 
fraternity are proclaimed evening and morning in the 
face of monarchs who tremble behind a triple defense of 
suspected soldiers. The deluge of democracy is gaining 
on them ; they mount step by step from the foundation 



54 Republicanism in France. 

likely to be fulfilled, we will not pause to 

to the roof of their palaces, from whence they throw 
themselves forth to swim in the tide which has engulfed 
them. 

"The discovery of printing has changed all social 
conditions; the press, that engine which nothing can 
crush, shall continue to destroy the ancient world, until 
she has formed of it a new one. It is a voice calculated 
for the universal forum of the people. Printing is only 
the Word, first of all powers. The Word has created 
the universe. Unhappily the word, in man, shares 
human infirmities. Evil is mingled with the good, so 
that our fallen nature does not retain its original 
purity. 

" The transformation demanded by this age of 
the world will take place. All is calculated in this 
design. Nothing is possible now but the natural death 
of society, whence it shall go forth again to a newer and 
better existence. It is impious to struggle against the 
Angel of God; to believe that we shalJ arrest Provi- 
dence. Viewed from this point, the French revolution 
is only one part of the general revolution. All anxiety 
ceases. All the axioms of ancient politics become inap- 
plicable, 

''Louis Philippe has ripened in a half century the 
democratic harvest. The bed bourgeoise, where was 
planted Philipism, less worked by the Revolution than 
the military or popular beds, furnished still some vigor 
to the vegetation of the seventh of August, but it, too, 
will soon be exhausted. 



Republicanism in France. 55 

argue. It would not, however, be hazardous 

"There are religious men who revolt at the first 
supposition of anything hard and severe in the actual 
order of things. 'There are,' say they, 'some inevita- 
' ble reactions— some moral reactions. If the monarch 
' who initiates us into liberty has paid in his qualities the 

* despotism of Louis the Fourteenth and the corruption 
' of Louis the Fifteenth, can anyone believe that the debt 
' contracted by equality at the scaffold of an innocent 
' king will not be acquitted ? Equality, in losing its life, 
' has expiated nothing. Weeping at the last moment 

* cannot redeem anyone. The tears of fear moisten only 
'the breast, but fall not upon the conscience. What I 
' can the race of Orleans reign in sight of the crimes and 
' the vices of its ancestors ! Where then would be Prov- 
' idence ? A more terrible temptation could never have 

* assailed virtue, accused eternal justice, and insulted the 

* existence of God.' 

"I have heard these arguments made; but must we 
conclude from them that the sceptre of the ninth of 
August is to be broken immediately. 

"In elevating itself in the universal order, the reign 
of Louis Philippe is only an apparent anomaly — only an 
infraction, not real, to the laws of morality and equity. 
They are violated, these laws, in a sense limited and 
relative. They are obeyed in an unlimited and general 
sense. From one enormity permitted by God I draw a 
high conclusion. I deduce from it the Christian proof 
of the abolition of Boi/aJfy in France. It is this very 
abolition, and not an individual chastisement, which will 



56 Republicanism in France. 

to assert that the first has become, or is on the 

be the expiation of the death of Louis XVI. After this 

act of retributive justice, the Diadem iDill never again sit 
firmly vpo)i any head ! Napoleon, spite of bis victories, 
saw it fall from his brow ; Charles the X., in spite of 
piety. To complete the disgrace of the crown in the 
eyes of the people, the sons of the regicide will be per- 
mitted to rest a moment in the bloody bed of the martyr. 
"Royalty is doomed. It must pass away. What 
are three, four, six, ten, twenty years in the life of a 
people? Ancient society perished with the political 
conditions which gave it birth. At Rome the reign of 
a man was substituted for that of law by Caesar. They 
passed from the Republic to the Empire. Revolution is 
going on to-day, but in a contrary direction ; the law 
dethrones the man. We pass from Royalty to 
Republicanism. The era of the People is come. It 
remains to see how it will be filled. 

"Europe must first be settled into the same sys- 
tem. One cannot imagine a representative government 
in France while all around her are absolute monarchies. 
Should this happen, she must not only sustain foreign 
wars on every hand, but struggle at home against a 
double anarchy — moral and physical. 

"What shall be said upon the division of property? 
Shall it remain as it is ? A state of society where some 
individuals have an income of two millions, while others 
are reduced to filling their wretched lodgings with 
heaps of decay, in order to breed worms — worms which, 
sold to the fishermen, are the sole means of subsistence 



Republicanism! in France. 57 

point of becoming, an accomplished fact. 

of the families themselves ? Can such a society remain 
stationary, upon such foundations, in the midst of the 
general progress of ideas ? 

"But if it shall touch upon the matter of property, 
there will result immense overturnings which will not 
be accomplished without the sheddmg of blood. The 
law of blood and of sacrifice is everywhere. God ^ 
delivered His son to the death of the cross, that he 
might remodel the order of the universe. Before any 
new rights can be evolved from this chaos, the stars 
shall often rise and set. 

The eighteen hundred years since the Christian era 
have not sufficed to abolish slavery. Still only a small 
part of the gospel mission is accomplished. 

" These calculations suit not French impatience. In 
revolutions the element of time is not admitted ; there- 
fore they are always confounded by results contrary to 
their hopes. While they overturn, Time re-arranges. 
It brings order from disorder. It rejects the green 
fruit ; it gathers the ripe. It sifts and sorts men, 
manners, and ideas. 

"Modern society has taken ten generations to settle 
itself. Now it is unsettled. The generations of the 
middle ages were vigorous because they were in an 
ascending progression. 

"This waning world shall not gather again its 
strength until it shall have reached the last step, whence 
it shall remount to a new life. We are only passing 
8 



58 Republicanism in France. 

This may not please the army of political 

generations : obscure, intermediate generations, doomed 
to oblivion, forming the chain to clasp the hands of 
those who shall reap the harvests of the Future. 

" Respecting misfortune — respecting my own self — 
what I have served, and what I shall continue to serve, 
at the price of the repose of my old age. I would fear 
to pronounce, while living, a single word which 
could wound the unfortunate or even destroy their 
chimeras. But when I shall be no more, my sacrifices 
shall give to my tomb the right to speak the truth. My 
duty will be changed. The interests of my country 
shall carry it away upon the engagements of honor, 
from which I shall be released. To the Bourbons 
belongs my life ; to my country belongs my death. I, 
a prophet, in quitting this world, trace my predictions 
upon my last failing hours, leaves sere and withered, 
which the breath of eternity shall soon bear away. If 
it be true that the lofty race of the kings, refusing to 
be enlightened, approach to the end of their power, 
would it not be better in their historic interest that, by 
an end worthy of their grandeur, they retire into the 
holy night of the past, 

"Draped with the shadows of the dead centuries. 

" Society, such as it is to-day, will not prosper, until 
the inferior classes are educated ; until they discover 
the secret plague which has infected social order since 
the beginning of the world; the plague which is the 
cause of all evils, and of all popular agitations. The 



Republicanism in France. 59 

canters known to the world as conservatives 



too great inequality of fortunes and conditions has been 
able to maintain itself thus, because it has been con- 
cealed, on the one side by ignorance, and on the other 
Bide by the false organizations of the city. But as soon 
as that general inequality is perceived by all, then the 
mortal blow is struck. 

"Reorganize, if you can, the aristocratic fictions; 
attempt to persuade the poor man, when he shall have 
learned to read, the poor man to whom the daily press 
brings news from city to city and from village to village. 
Attempt to persuade this poor man, thus enlightened, 
possessed of the same intelligence as you, that he ought 
to submit to all such privations, while another man, his 
neighbor, has, without labor, a thousand times the 
superfluities of life. Your eiforts will be useless. Do 
not demand of the crowd virtues which are beyond 
human nature. 

"The development of material resources of society 
shall also add new impulse to the development of 
Mmd. When steam shall be perfected; when joined 
with telegraphs and railroads it shall make distances 
disappear, it will not onlj'^ be commerce of the nations 
which will travel from one end of the world to the 
other with the rapidity of lightning, but it will be 
ideas also. 

"When all financial and commercial barriers shall 
have been abolished between the several States, as they 
already are between the provinces of the same State ; 
when the payment of wages, which is only a vestige of 



60 Kepublicanism in France. 

of the old regime, ultramontane Catholics, and 

slavery, shall be abolished because of the equality 
established between the producer and the consumer ; 
when the various nations, adopting the manners of each 
other, abandoning national prejudices, — those old ideas 
of supremacy and conquest shall tend to the unity of 
the people ; — by what means, think you, can society 
retrograde to the principles of the dark ages ? Bona- 
parte himself has not the power to do it. Equality and 
liberty, to which he opposed the inflexible bar of his 
mighty genius, have resumed their destined course, and 
carried before them his works. The dominion of force 
which he created has vanished; his institutions have 
failed. The light which he kindled was only a meteor. 

"There was only one original monarchy in Europe — 
the French— all the rest are her daughters. All of them 
will pass away with their mother. Kings have lived, 
behind this monarchy a thousand years, sheltered by a 
race incorporated with the centuries. When the breath 
of the Revolution cast down that race, Bonaparte arose. 
He held the tottering princes upon the thrones which he 
overthrew and built up. Bonaparte passes away. The 
monarchs remain living drearily amid the ruins of the 
Napoleonic coliseum as the hermits who beg alms at the 
Coliseum at Rome. But soon these ruins even will fail 
them. 

"But when shall this reorganization of society be 
accomplished ? When society, (composed of old*, of 
family circles from the fireside of the laborer to the fire- 
side of the kingjj shall be reconstructed upon a system 



Republicanism in France. t>l 

imperialists : but it will please four-fifths of 
the nation, which is much better. In short, 
France has spoken. She demands the Repub- 
lic. She will have it. Her will is henceforth 
to be her law. 

as yet unknown — a system more in accordance with 
nature, after ideas and by aid of means which are 
innate. God knows when. Who can calculate the 
resistance of passion, the crushing of vanity, the 
perturbations and accidents of history ? An unexpected 
war, the sudden appearance at the head of a nation of a 
man of brains, or a stupid man, the smallest event can 
suspend or hasten the march of the nations. Many 
a time death has quenched nations full of fire, 
turned to silence events ready to be accomplished, as a 
little snow fallen during the night, can hush the noise of 
a great city. 

"The future will surely be a future of power, free in 
all the fulness of the gospel equality ; but it is far away 
still — far away beyond the sweep of the visible horizon. 
Before reaching that end — before attaining to the unity 
of the nations — democracy must pass through social 
anarchy, through times of peril, of blood maybe, of 
weakness certainly. This crisis has begun. It is not 
yet ready to bring forth results ; in germ only exists the 
new world." 



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